How to Beat the Monday Blues

Monday Blues and dreading work.

Making Life BETTER on Monday.

Friday came and went faster than a burp in the wind. As Sunday night creeps around you start thinking about the work week ahead. You mentally run through your “to do” list, thinking about all the things that can wait till Monday morning so you can soak up the last few hours of your weekend.

Monday rolls around and you feel like your brain may as well be at the bottom of the ocean because you are lost. The struggle is real pushing through the day, feeling all slothy. And you can’t escape those sad feelings. The ones that make you doubt you’ll ever be able to recover your mental sharpness and energy. Your goal is to just make it through the end of the day. Till you get to go home, crash on the couch and binge watch your current series. That’s the only thing getting you through the day.

Everyone gets the Monday blues. Even people who love their jobs. It’s the adjustment from freedom to structure that throws us off balance. Just when we finally got situated in the weekend, after attending plans, cleaning, working in the yard, shuffling the kids everywhere, that we settle in with time for ourselves and.. Boom. We have to go to work. For those that don’t like their jobs, the feels on Monday are even worse.

I have some tips to help your weekends merge into the week a little smoother.

• Prepare for Monday on Friday. Before you leave work on Friday go ahead and do your “Monday self” a favor and complete any dreadful tasks. Finish those files, make that uncomfortable phone call, respond to those emails, you get the point. If there are any tasks that have to be left for Monday, set them up as much as possible so it can be easy-breezy Monday morning.

• Get the hardest things done first.  What was left over from Friday, or any daunting task needs to be tackled first. So you don’t spend the rest of the day procrastinating or feeling like it’s hanging over your head all day. This will help you feel like you are no longer working up hill.

• Schedule social things for Mondays. Mondays are the best work days to schedule meetings, network, get lunch or dinner with colleagues or friends, or plan anything that involves socializing. This might sound crazy at first but it makes logical since. You are coming off of a weekend in which you were most likely socializing at some point. And as I mentioned before, you are adjusting to structure again. At this point your brain function is foggy and therefore concentrating at a desk is not the easiest thing for you to do. However, talking to people requires less mental effort than working on a project, crunching numbers, or whatever tasks your job entails. And looking forward to seeing a friend, partner, or colleague after work in a social setting can be a happy end to a long Monday. The latter also helps break up that sad pattern you usually repeat on Mondays and will give you a more positive outlook for the next day.

• Do something for someone else. When you already don’t want to be there, it is easy to have a negative attitude at work. Having a negative attitude can make us be more self-centered and spiral a pattern of bad habits. Change that up by doing something small and selfless on Monday. Giving to others spikes feel-good neurochemicals in the brain. So, give yourself a few doses of happy by bringing a coworker some coffee, allow that car trying to merge in front of you, hold the door open for a few people, bring cupcakes to work. You don’t have to go all out, just do something rather than nothing. And by your example, you may help others feel less blue too.

• Go to bed early on Sunday. This is a tough one, but it’s effective. We all know the benefits of getting enough sleep. That doesn’t make it easy to do though. Set a time that you would like to start getting ready for bed and stick with that every Sunday night.

• Dress your best. Plan to wear your favorite or most cute outfit on Monday. Make at least one thing go right and wear that outfit you know looks good and fits good. Wash it and get it ready Sunday night.

• Be mindful of how you are feeling. If you notice after trying these tips for beating the ‘Monday blues’ that you still dread the start of the work week, spend some time identifying where those feelings are coming from. Is it something happening at work that may be out of your control? Could it be that you are not getting enough downtime for yourself during your days off? Or focusing on yourself enough?

Once you spend some time processing why Monday feels something awful, you might find that it really isn’t just Monday. That those feelings are there more than half the time. This could be a symptom of depression or anxiety that has been hiding in the background. If this is the case for you, talking to a therapist would be helpful for you to be able to work through this.

If you are thinking about getting help, reach out to me. I am here to support you!

Contact Me

https://stephaniehopecounseling.com